Conditional Text Question

[Combs, Richard]

Sam Beard wrote: 

>    Thanks much for the help on this issue, but I need to 
> clarify a few things. First, I'm aware of the purpose of 
> using conditional text, which is what helped me to get this 
> job. However, I have no real choice as to having three 
> separate files (my second point), because of our 
> documentation control system. We number our documents with a 
> one-up system, including the month/year as the last four 
> parts of an eight-digit number. If these documents were for a 
> new product line, we MIGHT be able to get away with putting 
> them into a single number.
> However, they are for two separate but similar product lines. 
> The first one is 1950 while the second one is 2158. 
> Therefore, I have to maintain having three separate books for 
> each document, hiding and viewing the appropriate conditional 
> text and saving it to the appropriate folder on our system. 
> Unless someone has an idea about how to get around that, then 
> that's the way it is here. 

Hmm.

Is your doc control system intended to control the _source_ files or the
_output_ files? If it's the former, you're already "cheating" by having
an unnumbered "master" from which you create the 1950 and 2158 versions.
In this case, the system isn't accomplishing its purpose and needs to be
re-evaluated. Pretending that the two derivative versions are really the
source isn't the right solution.

If the doc control and numbering is for the output/deliverable, not for
the source, then a single set of source files containing both doc
numbers (conditionalized appropriately) is the way to go. 

As for the condition indicators: For the current file, open the
Conditional Text dialog, and click Show/Hide to display the Show/Hide
Conditional Text dialog. There, clear the Show Condition Indicators
check box to hide the color and formatting of conditions. 

Alternatively, you can do this quickly at the book level: In the book
window, select all files. Then select View > Hide Conditional Text
Indicators (or View > Show/Hide Conditional Text if you need to choose
conditions to hide as well as hiding the condition indicators). 

HTH!
Richard